All That Glitters
by BoogieBoy
Summary: Where I leave my headcanons behind and try to guess "The Search"...
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes**:

This is somewhat of a half-fanfiction/half-guesswork. I'll leave all my headcanons, and as many of my biases as I can, behind me and am try and guess how "The Search" will go. Feel free to throw in your two cents any time you wish.

The Promise will do it in three volumes, I'll try to do it in six chapters. Onward!

* * *

The cell was small, cold, dark and isolated. She'd care, if she could bring herself to, like she once did. But that was long ago, a lifetime away. The man who she once idolized and would follow without a fault was now a mess in drags. She couldn't care. Maybe if she could bring herself to she wouldn't feel so cold and lonely, but she couldn't. It was the way of life really, monsters don't get a happy endings; it is beyond their grasp.  
The man, her father, looked up. There was certain power between his motions, as if he was still in some form of control, as if a powerful person lay underneath him. Maybe he was right, in his mind, considering his expectations.  
The reality was not what he expected; it was not Zuko. With Zuko he could play, Zuko he could tease, Zuko he could manipulate. Zuko was soft. Zuko was cowardly. Zuko was weak. This was not Zuko; this was a woman in royal clothes he knew very well.  
She could see it in his eyes: the realization that his game was up. He could no longer talk or annoy his way out of the situation. In front of him was the infallible tool he crafted. Slowly his posture softened, his domineering aura dissipated, the illusion of control wasn't there anymore.  
"The guards outside were relieved from duty, they'll be back in a few hours." That was a lie, the guard outside the door was doubled, but he needed one last push, he needed to know that right now he was not safe.  
The moment hang between them, silence so think you could cut it with a knife.  
"She's on Lu Pao island."

As soon as she exited the room guards swarmed around her, making sure that she'd be unable to escape. Flanked from all sides the petite, pale woman slowly started her march towards the visitor room where her brother waited, a victorious smile on her face. Her plan was going well and now Zuzu could do nothing about it – with all his power, all his wealth, everything the crown entitled him to he was completely at her mercy.  
The irony, a man wrapped in silk was at the mercy of a girl who spent the better part of last year in a straight jacket. She chuckled, no matter what her brother never changed. Poor Zuzu...  
When she entered the visitor room she held her head high, as if coming back from a victorious campaign, her posture screamed victory. It was having the effect she wanted, she could see it in Zuko's eyes – he knew she has what he wanted. Now all he had to do was ask, and she'd wait for it. Let him beg her for it. It was a standoff-ish situation really, who'd crack first.  
A moment pass, then a second, then a third, then Zuko's patience ran out.  
"Well?"  
"I know where she is." She gave him a coy smile, the 'I'm-not-telling' one.  
"Where is she?"  
Azula kept her silence, just that irritating smile on her lips.  
"Tell me!" The Firelord's temper flared.  
"Tsk-tsk, patience Zuzu, patience, I can easily guide us there."  
"Out of the question."  
She wasn't bothered by that; she expected it. Azula just shrugged her shoulders as if it was the most trivial thing and kept smiling at him. She was getting what she wanted.  
"You will tell me what I want to know and then get back to the asylum."  
Almost...  
"This is not what we agreed on!"  
A little more...  
"WHERE IS MOTHER!?"  
Her smile widened, she'd won.  
"Guards, take her away!"  
As she was being led away from him she turned her head and said in her coyly, sing-song voice.  
"Do visit when you change your mind."

* * *

Zuko watched as the bison descended from the sky on the main plaza. He watched as his friend jumped down and petted the beast and as he greeted him wholeheartedly. Then he embraced him.

"Aang it's good to see you, what are you doing here?"

"Oh you know, had some business in the area, decided to drop by."

"Katara?"

Aang rubbed the back of his neck, in his signature way when he was talking about something he sort-off knew.

"She's at the South Pole, they needed her for something." His eyes drifted somewhere, obvious they explained it to him, but Aang hardly paid attention. "So how are you doing?"

As always, Zuko's face explained it all.

"That bad, huh?"

"I was so close to finding my mother, so close."

"What happened?"

"The gambit with my sister didn't pay off."

"Why not?"

"She won't tell me, she wants to "guide" me there."

For a moment there was a puzzled look on Aang's face.

"Why not?"

That stopped the Firelord dead in his tracks.

"What do you mean why not?"

"Well...why not use her as a guide?"

"Because...I don't even know where to start. She's a liar, all she ever did was to destroy me, she hates me, she can't be trusted she's...Azula!"

For a moment it seemed like Aang didn't know what to say or do.

"Why don't you let me talk with her?"

His friend gave him a weird look.

"You never know Zuko, maybe she just wants to meet her mother too."

Zuko was looking at him as if Aang has gone completely insane.

-0-

The girl was not what he expected, or remembered. The young woman's gaze wasn't as piercing or menacing as it once was, her eyes were drifting, as if staring at something beyond him. Her hair was nicely made-up, probably because of her recent visit to the former firelord, but it looked like it wasn't properly treated in a while. Her skin was paler, she seemed to have dropped a few pounds, although he may be remembering wrong. If the staff didn't tell him that was Princess Azula, he wouldn't know.

Her straightjacket was making him uncomfortable. They told him it was for his own protection, but...

"Hi" The Avatar started.

She stared at him for several seconds, blinking in surprise, that was unexpected. Why would the Avatar be here? To take her bending? No, he would have done so long ago if he wished? To threaten her? Not Zuko's style. To gloat? A year too late. What was he doing here?

She just kept staring at him puzzled.

"Zuko said your dad told you where your mom is." Now that he thought about it Aang felt somewhat inadequate for this "And that you wouldn't tell him." This was the first time he was trying to extract information "Why?"

Then her face changed for puzzled to angered.

"Why should I?" The response was sharper, more hostile than Aang anticipated, or Azula wanted to deliver.

"Because he's your brother."

The girl started to laugh, it wasn't an innocent, or even a pleasant laughter, it was somewhat disturbing, as if she was laughing at a bad joke you weren't supposed to laugh.

"Aren't we a happy family?"

"Don't you want to see your mother?"

Azula's smile vanished

"It's my mother, what do you think?"

"Then why don't you tell Zuko?"

"I don't trust him."

-0-

When Aang entered the room Zuko got a bad feeling, people don't come from Azula with smiles on their face and when they do you'd better run.

"Zuko, I solved the problem."

"She gave you my mother's location."

"No, she'll guide us there."

* * *

**Closing author notes:**

As I said this is somewhat of a guessing game for me, let's see how much of "The Search" I can guess, therefore I think it's only fair for me to explain my line of thought. One of the first things "The Search" will begin with is Azula pulling information from Ozai, since this was the cliffhanger "The Promise" left us with. Now in this scene Ozai get's to face his own creation and he knows that unlike Zuko, Azula IS going to do something horrible to him if he doesn't cooperate, so he gives in. There is a short moment in which he is trying to swallow his pride, not assess the situation, he knows Azula can make him talk, he made sure of this, so he gives in – even in his current state he doesn't want to end up eating through a tube.

In the second scene Azula refuses to give the information to Zuko, why? Because she knows her brother is going to throw her in the asylum if she does, something that the girl doesn't want. Now I'd like to back off for a minute towards the animated series and The Promise.

A lot of fanfics (mine included) tend to portrait Zuko as a caring or sympathetic brother, however if we look at the series this really isn't the case. In the whole two seasons the two of them are together he shows sort-of-sympathy towards her once – when she was falling to her death and even then we can compare that scene to the one where Zhao died. Zuko extended his hand towards Zhao, he did not give his sister the same courtesy.

Furthermore we can clearly see that for the most part Zuko is jealous of Azula, the attention she gets, her achievements, her talents – he shows dislike towards her for those things. So I guess while we want Zuko to be a better man, he just isn't as good as we want him to be, remember, he wins the "Not-as-much-of-a-jerk-as-you-could-have-been" award, not the "Aang medal".

Which leads me to "The Promise" and the post-series admittance of Azula. Initially I though, like most people, that Zuko did this in hopes she get's better, but I seem to have changed my mind on this. Zuko did it because it's the humane thing to do, he's not a bad guy, but he might as well be planning to throw her in jail afterward or never thought he'd have to deal with her again.

When we see them talk in Part 3, it is clear that he's visiting her for the first time. They speak completely formally, business like, there is nothing indicating care or understanding, given the way Zuko acted or behaved, he didn't sound much sympathetic to her situation.

Which is why Azula doesn't tell him the location – she needs help, help that the institution can't provide – Zuko is not going to give it to her, he doesn't want to deal with her. Thus Azula's role as a major character is formed – she blackmails her way into the main cast.

We also see the new dynamic – Zuko is the one dominant in the relationship, Azula is at his mercy. However personality wise Azula doesn't got well with being submissive, so she tries to use any hook she has to create some form of authority. On the other hand Zuko is not that good at commanding, so despite the fact that he does have power over his sister, he is still being led by her.

Now when Aang suggested "You never know Zuko, maybe she just wants to meet her mother too." he is pretty much being his naïve always optimistic self, but in this case he is right. Why? Because we see the first character development for Azula that happened between Sozin's Comet and The Promise. She doesn't have a crafted master plan, a complicated, carefully calculated strategy, she is willing to throw all her chips on a blind hope given to her by an unreliable source – even if she is unwilling to admit it to herself.

Lastly you'd noticed that Azula doesn't trust Zuko, she said so herself. Why? When he joined the Avatar Zuko became the first person to betray her trust, seeing how "Trust is for fools", Azula isn't willing to play the fool twice.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Guess what, I don't own anything.**

* * *

The bison slowly descended on a small, but obviously wealthy town. The big houses and rich decorations visible from above were proof of this. This town was one of the first to benefit from the end of the war, in the past this place it used to be a major trading port, but the war killed international trade and with it – the business. Recently trade with the Earth Kingdom opened and with it life was born a new for the small town.

The bison landed in the middle of this small renaissance.

„Here we are, Gu Tamao bay"

The young Avatar jumped from the massive animal and took a good look at the new place. And a thousand puzzled faces looked straight at him. Someday he would learn not to park in the middle of a town. But not today – right now nothing could kill his excitement. A new place, with new people, with new things to see and experience. Aang was feeling like he was deep in his own waters.

In contrast the slowly descending and grumpy Zuko was anything but. The whole time they flew to here he couldn't take off his eyes from his sister. She was planing something, he could smell it in the air. She was always planning something. To trust Azula was to be a fool and he regretted that Aang did not know any better – he should. Then again he barely knew her, unlike him, he knew her. He knew her all too well...

Zuko eyed his sister with as much suspicion as he could as she was lumping off Appa.

"So, where to now?" Aang cheerful addressed his not-so-happy companions.

The former princess, and only person who knew where they were going, answered in quick, stern, and almost, or was it just a, commanding way "Somewhere we could eat."

"What?"

"I'm hungry, after that we continue."

Zuko slanted his good eye, he knew it.

"Where's mother Azula?"

"Close."

"Where is she?"

"You'll meet her soon."

"This is a waste of time, you lie, you don't know where she is!" Zuko turned towards the Avatar "Let's just go back."

"Come on Zuko, cheer up!" Aang tried to lighten up the situation. "Let's go grab something" as he said that his stomach started to grow "I'm vanished."

The truth of the matter was that Aang had another reason to be cheerful – the trip to hear was painful. Zuko was acting paranoid, more than usual. He never took his eyes off his sister, it was creepy really. He looked condescending in a way neither Katara, nor Sokka ever were. Then again, they never tried to kill each other. He couldn't imagine the water tribe siblings like that, the thought was blocked in his head, couldn't do it. Sure they argued, had back-and-fort and sometimes clawed at each other, but it was always in that typical sibling way.

Unlike the others Azula just sat there, in her corner, trying hard to ignore everyone and everything.

"So, where can we eat?" Aang asked after a moment.

Both siblings shrugged, this wasn't an area they were in before.

The people were starting to disperse, seeing as obviously the there was no show, although a few kids stayed and gazed Appa with awe.

They've been walking for two hours, made two whole circles around the small town. Zuko was as always eying Azula with as much paranoia as he could muster, Aang was slumped, annoyed and obviously frustrated, while Azula was looking around like a young child on a carnival, taking in the sight of the restored city.

"There isn't a single place to eat!" The last airbender threw his hands in the air, he was at his wits end.

"We passed five restaurants and a couple of dozen food stands." The Princess pointed out.

"But they only have meat."

"Duh." She counter-replied. "What kind of a person doesn't eat meat?"

The Avatar gave her the evil eyes, she just smirked victorious, she didn't knew he was a vegetarian.

"Look Aang" Zuko intervened "We could just sit somewhere and you can order a salad, we'd order something to eat, and we'd call it a day."

"Or..." His sister took the word before the avatar could "I have a better idea."

And just like that she disappeared.

"Where did she go?" Zuko suddenly jumped, frantically trying to find her among the stream of people, to no success.

"Relax Zuko, she'll come back." His friend tried to calm him to no effect. When he saw that didn't work, he tried changing the topic "You know, I expected you to be more cheerful. Usually when someone says he has a lead for your mother you lighten up."

"Usually that someone is not Azula." Zuko decided to further answer Aang's question before he even asked. "You don't know her as I do. She lies, she always lies, that's who Azula is. If there isn't anything in it for her, she wouldn't be doing this."

"But there is, she get's her mother back." The Avatar stated in a matter-of-fact way.

Zuko just scoffed.

And as he did that the girl in question popped up with flowers in her hand and a bright smile on her face. Eyes locked directly at Aang.

"What?" He asked.

She just pushed the flowers towards him.

"What?"

She pushed them more forcefully.

Then it dawned on him.

"I can't believe this."

"It's food, isn't it?" She said through her devilish smile.

"You bought it from a flower shop."

"You said you were a herbivore. "

"That doesn't mean I eat flowers."

"Flowers, grass, same thing."

Aang was starting to understand some of Zuko's issue with her.

* * *

They ate quietly, everyone absorbed in his or her own thoughts. The Avatar was eating some kind of grass and leaves, Zuko was eating some kind of a plain meal, while Azula was eating something **good**. She couldn't recall the last time she had a decent meal. Hospital food was not the best of the best.

But as she sat there eating her food a thought crossed her mind. This town, she's been here before. She remembered docking here on her way to the Earth Kingdom, to capture her traitorous brother and uncle. She remember the dusty streets, the ragged people, the near-collapsed buildings. She remembered it all. And yet, here was this town, flourishing, being in better state than it ever was, or she believed it could be.

But it shouldn't be. The Avatar and his ragtag warrior band won, the Fire Nation lost, she lost, her fool of a brother is Firelord. People should be dieing of malaria, diseases should widespread, everyone should be poor and there should be a crowd hungry for blood. Not well dressed people, not rich buildings, not clean streets, not happy people.

"Are you going to eat that?" She heard the Avatar speak to her.

She realized she hadn't taken a bite for quite a while. The food was delicious. She took some of her...meat...with her fork and lifted it towards her mouth. Was her hand shaking? She put it in her mouth and started to chew.

It tasted stale, dreadful, it was stuck in her throat. But that was the best thing she ate in a year just a moment ago. Why did it taste so bad right now?

"Are you alright?" She heard the annoying voice of that boy again.

She was not alright, she was wearing her emotions on her sleeves. She tried and failed at regaining her composure. It was getting bad, it was getting absurd. She couldn't control herself.

She couldn't take it anymore. Azula stood up, declared as coldly as possible "I'm done, I'll be waiting for you on the animal." and stormed off towards Appa.

"What happened?" The Avatar blinked several times, trying to process what just happened.

"I don't know, but I don't want to leave her alone." Zuko replayed, picking up his eating pace.

Aang sat still for a moment, trying to make do of the situation.

"You know, "Aang tried picking up the conversation, as well as a piece of lettuce. "I think you should give her a chance."

Zuko snorted at that "Give her a chance? Why? So she could stab me in the back?"

"Come on Zuko, sometimes trusting people is the best thing you could do."

"Yeah, right. Aang she tried to kill me, remember?"

"And you tied to capture me on so many occassions, remember?" Aang gave his bright, innocent smile to Zuko "Look how that turned out."

The Firelord looked at his friend, there was nothing he could say. He just left his half-eaten meal on the table and set course after his sister.

Aang gave a deep sigh, he just wanted his trip to not be as awkward. But in the same time he couldn't help but feel bad for his passengers. He remembered how Zuko lamented his lack of family and how jealous he was of the one Kori had. But good things don't just happen because you wish them to, he learned that, Zuko would not get a nice family if he just wished to have one. The young Avatar shook his head, was it so hard for everyone to just be happy and good to each other?

* * *

They left Gu Tamao bay before sunset, spending several hours in awkward silence. At midnight he landed Appa at a small island. After which the three of them, alright, he and Zuko, started making camp. No one was in the mood to eat so everyone was busy going to sleep. Although even this turned out to be an irradiating task. He and Zuko were on Appa, while Azula just went to the other side of the campfire and crashed on the ground. Now the young Avatar knew that the girl was somewhat pampered, so her choice to sleep on the ground instead of with them stung a little, even if they weren't the best of friends. At the same time the Firelord absolutely refused to go to sleep until he was sure his sister was not awake. Only when he too went to sleep did the hostile air lifted and Aang felt like he was able to sleep.

And as he was getting ready to do so, he noticed something – the princess was not asleep. He could swear that Zuko waited for her to fall asleep before going to bed himself, but could it be that he confused her passive, static state as sleeping? Possible, Aang was fooled as well.

Then again, he could make use of the situation.

He got up and walked to the girl's sleeping form, he had a question on his mind.

"You and Zuko don't like each other very much, do you?" Alright, that was a little direct, still, it got the point across.

He watched as she slowly, triedly turned towards him.

"No, can't be, what gave you that impression?" Aang was able to detect the sarcasm, although anyone would be able to detect sarcasm this thick.

"But you're brother and sister."

She gave him a smile, a creepy smile.

"That's not how the game is played Avatar." There was a strange tinkle in her eyes, he couldn't classify it. "If you want daddy to like you, you have to be on the top, which means that the other has to be on the bottom."

She was inspecting him, Aang could swear she was inspecting. Then, without pausing, she continued.

"I've spend my life making sure Zuko was on the bottom, that father knew he was a dissapointment. Zuko spend his life trying to climb up and hated me for being up top, hated me for my father's love."

There was no regret in her voice, no remorse, it was matter-of-fact and it creeped him out. He could say only one thing.

"But your father's gone now."

After that statement the twinkle turned into something he knew, an emotion he recognized – resignation. For a moment she seemed like she didn't knew what to say, how to react. Then her answer came in a cold and detached manner

"And this is all that's left."

* * *

**A/N: Zuko doesn't like Azula very much – that isn't a surprise. Aang seems confused and baffled at the sibling interaction, since he doesn't have any siblings and the ones he knows act nothing like this. By the end of the chapter Azula flat out tells him the problem – she and Zuko are brother and sister in blood only, rivals in everything else.**

**Azula on the other hand has to confront one unfortunate reality for the first time. She was wrong, Ozai was wrong as well. Even more so, the world is doing better off without them. She tries to reason with it, but the only thing she could do is get overwhelmed. She isn't ready to accept the reality, so she runs away from it, especially when her emotional state blocks her ability to mask her emotions.**

**Zuko confronts one major issue this chapter – he can't control Azula, even when the cards are reversed he does not have a sway over her. Also, for the first time instead of receiving, he is asked to give a second chance. It isn't as easy as Zuko thinks it is.**


End file.
